This is a common question some people ask when seeing large, well built people at the gym. In some cases you are curious. Sure, there are a percentage of people at the gym that might be athletes of one type of another. Typically in the summer gyms are flooded with football players preparing for the upcoming season.

But for other very well developed people, what are you using those muscles for?

Fitness is a Journey

Many people who train sporadically or end up not sticking with a program don’t seem to understand. People who have trained for years do. There is enjoyment in fitness.

Initially many people have simple goals of losing weight or adding muscle. They want to change how they look and also how they feel about themselves. Those are perfectly good reasons to start training. Some people take this to another level and pursue fitness into the sporting outlets such as bodybuilding, powerlifting, or fitness competitions.

But many others just do it because we like how we feel.

You find your niche

People who end up training for a long time usually discover they like how training feels. They enjoy the challenge of working out. It doesn’t matter if it is weights, running, cycling, or even combinations of all of them. There is an enjoyment about physically challenging yourself, meeting goals you set, and changing your body to look how you want. There is a positive rush you can generate from a really good workout. It can also relieve a lot of stress and help you live longer.

In some ways fitness is like golf. You can play golf with other people, but usually you are just playing against yourself. You are also playing for yourself because you like the challenge.

So what are those muscles for?

Whatever you want them for. Maybe you like to feel strong because it allows you to pick up your kids and toss them around like in the circus. Perhaps you enjoy that athletic build because it makes you feel great and helps when you run 10k’s or hammer softballs in your local league. Or you could just enjoy working out to challenge yourself to be better each year even as you grow older.

Does it really matter what you use those muscles for? No, in the end it really doesn’t as long as you know why you are working out. As long as there is a reason for that means something to you then that is all that really matters. But you should have a point because that allows you to focus your mind. So what are you training for? Think about what you want and then enjoy the journey of getting there.